More than 99 years of scientific progress has been tracked by the Nobel Prize, writes David Le Page It is unlikely any scientist ever began research with an eye on the Stockholm academies administering the prizes founded by dynamite inventor Alfred Nobel. But their stature and heritage has come to make them an incontrovertible map […]

Christian Figenschou They’re the stuff of dreams, nightmares, aspirations and obsessions, freedom and empowerment; of all the inventions of the past 100 years, the motor car best captures the essence of the 20th century. The first self-propelled wagons were described as long ago as the 17th century, and the 19th century saw steam-powered carriages, but […]

In South Africa we should perhaps have called the Y2K bug something more indigenous – Tokoloshe 2000 would be appropriate, writes Gavin Foster Remember the tokoloshe? The little man with the tail who was blamed for everything that could possibly go wrong? When the goats strayed it must have been the tokoloshe that made their […]

When fame is an open book, Christ, Shakespeare and Lenin lead the list of icons who have inspired the world’s authors, writes Martin Kettle in Washington If fame is having a book written about you, then as the subject of no fewer than 17 239 books, Jesus Christ remains the most famous figure in the […]

Robert Kirby remembers his childhood and the part three men society politely termed ‘mentally deficient’ played in it My first clear memories of the Durban where I was born and grew up were of the war years, the early Forties. A domestic world of absent fathers and uncles, mothers’ heads bent to static-filled wartime radio […]

EASTERN CAPE: Makhenkesi Stofile Grade: B+ In a style not dissimilar from that of President Thabo Mbeki, “Stof” has become impatient for delivery and intolerant of inefficiency. He has insisted that African National Congress mayoral candidates are appointed by him. He has held an anti- corruption conference which resulted in practical suggestions and time frames. […]

TONY LEON: Democratic Party (official opposition) NATIONAL ASSEMBLY SEATS: 38 Grade: B- His Tonyness was hardly likely in Parliament to be able to match his performance in the election, and he has not. This is in part a price of success. Increasing your party’s National Assembly representation fivefold in a single election takes energy – […]

The United Nations marked the 1990s as a decade for natural disaster reduction, but 1999 has been one of the worst on record. Tim Radford reports Here is how to become a disaster statistic. Move to a shanty town on an unstable hillside near a tropical coast. Crowd together as more and more people arrive. […]

At the bloody dawn of a new millennium, Jonathan Steele foresees no escape for the world from warfare and suffering that branded the 20th century an Age of Barbarism This has been, as Eric Hobsbawm put it, ”without doubt the most murderous century of which we have record by the scale, frequency and length of […]

1 Babylon 2 The dragon (Satan) 3 One third 4 Twelve foundation stones and 12 gates representing ”the 12 apostles of the lamb” 5 One thousand years; after which he will be ”loosed a little season” 6 ”The first creature was like a lion, the second like an ox, the third had a human face, […]